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A.S. Prilepin was a Soviet weightlifting coach who kept meticulous notes of over a thousand of training logs of his trainees. The result of these notes? A general guideline for strength training that people still use to this day.

The Chart

Prilepin’s chart was designed for powerlifters, but the strength training aspect is relevant to combat sports. Since powerlifting is also divided up into weight classes, the strength-to-size ratio is just as important. In short, it’s not just about how much you can lift. It’s also about how much you can lift BASED ON YOUR SIZE. See how this could be useful in combat sports like wrestling and jiu jitsu?

Percentages

If you’re completely unfamiliar with lifting, your 1RM is your one rep max. This is the maximum amount of weight you can lift with one repetition of any given movement such as the squat, deadlift, or bench press. The higher percent you lift, the heavier the load on your nervous system. This makes for longer recovery time and is ineffective from a volume standpoint. That brings us to the next definition.

Volume

Consider volume to be the weight you lift times reps times sets. For example, five sets of five reps of 200 pounds on the squat equals 5000 pounds of volume.

One set = 200 lbs X 5 = 1000 lbs

Five sets = 1000 lbs X 5 = 5000 lbs

Makes intuitive sense, right? The higher percentage lift, the lower the total volume. However, you still want to train for a high percentage of your one rep max too so that your nervous system is able to handle those weights. Long story short, you can see that strength training program can get very complicated very quickly.

Reps/Sets [Note: “Reps” are short for repetitions]

This column refers to the amount of individual reps performed in a set. It doesn’t exceed six repetitions because it’s originally designed for power lifts, which focus on explosive, perfect form. Anywhere higher leads to slowing down movements and suboptimal form. For power lifters, this is a problem. You want to be most explosive with the cleanest technique (because proper technique maximizes your ability to exert force while also minimizing your risk for injury).

Total Range

This explains the total amount of reps in the training session. This number varies because people respond differently to the same training sessions, but staying in the total range helps you get an idea of where the best results might be. World class strength coaches will understand that some athletes (regardless of sport) respond better to higher amounts of volume while some athletes respond better to lower amounts of volume when it comes to strength gains.

Optimal

Based on Prilepin’s observations, this is the optimal amount of total reps to perform. If you don’t have access and the financial means to hire a strength coach, this is a good enough starting point.

In this particular study, Prilepin’s Chart was applied to the three big lifts: the squat, bench press, and deadlift with favorable results. Additionally, these exercises will also give you the most bang for your buck! In general, while there is a time and place for isolation exercises (like bicep curls), you’d be far more efficient focusing on compound exercises that use more muscle groups such as the squat, bench press, dead lift, pull ups, rows, and overhead press.

I recently listened to a partner at a Venture Capital firm talk about startups that are quick to take action. I couldn’t have said it any better myself, so here’s the quote:

“Commander John Boyd was a flight instructor for the air force. There was this expression that in a simulated dog fight, he could beat any pilot in like 30 seconds or some outrageously quick amount of time. People were like, “How does he do that?” He taught this form of combat, which was about moving very quickly. So, if you place yourself in the time I was reading about John Boyd, it was also when I was working with Eric Ries and Steve Blank. Eric Ries was a consultant at Floodgate before he wrote The Lean Startup. He’s famous just like … I have this magnetism for famous future to be authors, I guess.

We were talking, and we’re like, “Something really important is happening here – offshore labor, search engine marketing, opensource software, broadband penetration, global markets – and it seems like you can get a product to market for less money, you can do it faster.” Steve Blank started talking about this guy named John Boyd. John Boyd was this flight instructor in the air force and he could beat anybody in a dog fight super fast. Boyd’s fundamental insight was that sometimes you can win a battle purely by being faster.

It’s like let’s say you’re in a Russian MiG and I’m in an F16, and I make the wrong move but you haven’t moved yet, then I make the right move before you’ve moved yet. Just the mere fact that I was able to make a move and course correct before you made your countermove means two things. I can get in the right position relative to you, but, more importantly, it’s very disorienting to you ‘cause you don’t know where I am. I was here, now I’m there. The philosophy of John Boyd that was inspiring to me back in 2005, and one of the reasons I started Floodgate, was, I was like, “You can do this as an entrepreneur and an investor.”

The F16 fighter jet was designed to John Boyd’s spec. An F16 doesn’t fly faster than a Russian MiG, but it changes directions faster. The F16 fighter was a system, it wasn’t just the plane, which could change direction faster, it was the mind of the pilot. The mind of an agile pilot with an agile plane will beat a Russian MiG all day long. So, I was like, “That’s what’s going to happen with startups.” That’s why 500,000 is the new 5,000,000, and that’s why we need to go fund these agile entrepreneurs. They’re going to be able to force multiply, and the big competitors who’ve raised a bunch of money are going slower, doing waterfall development, they’re going to be disoriented by how fast these companies move.

What I really learned from Boyd was kind of this idea that if you are a speed based competitor, you can be wrong but still be right quicker, which makes you right.”

Anyway, “Forty Second Boyd” (according to Wikipedia) could supposedly beat any pilot in a dogfight within forty seconds, which was unbelievable. While that transcript related to startups, the advice is great in terms of self improvement and pursuing excellence in any discipline.

As you know, there’s a massive difference between starting when you’re “good enough” and starting when you’re “perfect”. You can always adjust along the way for the former (and you’ll probably reach a high level of mastery faster than if you waited for perfection in the first place).

What’s the key takeaway here? Don’t let paralysis by analysis get you. Get moving towards your goals. Wanna start a lifting program? Do it. Looking to start crosstraining in another sport like boxing, jiu jitsu, or judo? Do it now. Unless you’re injured and medically unable to train, there’s no need to “wait for the right time” before you start training. Getting in shape will happen along the way if you’re conscious about taking action.

Looking to attend a training camp but don’t think that you’re ready? Go to camp and prepare to the furthest extent possible before that.

Wondering whether or not you should be ready to enter a tournament one month from now? Commit to it.

Trying to run/read/relax regularly? Take the first step now, even if it’s not the “perfect” decision in the perfect situation that you’re looking for. There’s always the possibility of adjustments.

By following John Boyd’s principle, you’ll find that you can take massive action, make mistakes, and still “win” over the long term. Compound interest generally favors the investor who started earlier and not the investor who put the most money in later. I believe the same applies when you invest in yourself through learning, wrestling, and jumping levels.

Joseph Campbell’s concept of a Hero’s Journey from the book “Hero With a Thousand Faces” caught my eye. Defining a hero as “someone who found, or achieved, or did something beyond the normal range of achievement, and who has given his life to something bigger than himself or other than himself”, he shows examples of individuals (both real and mythical) who undergo the hero’s journey. The result? A similar, repeatable pattern. Regardless of what you pursue, the Hero’s Journey appears to be a very interesting way to take a step back to see the bigger picture of what you might expect out of your journey. Personally, I’ve seen this pattern occur in cycles in different stages of my life, each with different obstacles to overcome. Now that I look at it from a higher perspective, I can see that there is in fact a pattern to it all.

Another heartening takeaway from the book is the fact that heroes didn’t begin as heroes. They became heroes from the circumstances they faced and inevitably had to overcome. Don’t think you’re capable of achieving great things? That’s fine- you’ll get there. Just take the first step.

With that in mind, let’s break down the Hero’s Journey based on Ray Dalio’s interpretation of the Hero’s Journey in his book, “Principles“.

Call to Adventure

The Hero’s Journey begins in the ordinary world we all live in. At some point, the hero is drawn to a “call to adventure”, or a calling of some sort. Sometimes, this call to adventure starts as a gentle pull or a minor attraction of sorts. At first, I certainly wasn’t in love with wrestling. Various factors drew me in, but that’s a story for another time. Eventually, I caught the wrestling bug and got addicted. I couldn’t watch or learn enough wrestling at any given time (to be fair, I still have this tendency and have to suppress it in order to get productive with other endeavors. It’s torture, man).

To others, the call to adventure is like love at first sight. Ioannis “Hermes” Melissanidis supposedly saw gymnastics for the first time on TV, and immediately knew that this was what he wanted to do. He had found his call to adventure. Initially, coming from a family that consisted mostly of doctors, his family wanted nothing to do with it, and refused his request to arrange a trainer to study gymnastics and compete for Greece on the Olympic team. “Absolutely not!” they said. So, what happened next?

Crossing the Threshold and The Road of Trials

At this point, life ceases to be ordinary. You embark on your Hero’s Journey. Along the way, you fight your battles, resist temptations, experience success, and overcome failure. On this journey, you’ll mostly likely receive help from other, more experienced people in the form of advice or mentorship. You gain allies and enemies along the way. Most importantly, you learn how to fight, often against conventional opinions or “wisdom”. You overcome your fear of fighting because of the sheer, incredible determination to achieve what you want, and gain skills from your battles or tests along with gifts (in the form of advice or anything else) from others.

With determination that is unusual of most children (and certainly adults), eight-year-old Hermes went on a hunger strike for several days (if you’d like to read this brief story, search for the heading “The Daimon in Action”). He refused to eat until his parents agreed to discuss the issue, and they eventually came to a compromise. Hermes finally got what he wanted- permission to study gymnastics full time. His parents would support it logistically and financially (after all, they were doctors and doctors can afford this sort of thing). In return, Hermes promised that he would also become a doctor, and so continued his Hero’s Journey.

In case you were curious as to how that particular journey ended, Hermes graduated from medical school and won a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Abyss

At some point, as the hero, you experience at least one massive big failure that tests whether you have the resilience to rise again with more wisdom and determination. If you do, and I’d be lying to you if this were easy, you’ll undergo a significant change (Joseph Campbell refers to this as a “metamorphosis”) where you experience the same fear, but propel yourself through that fear with enough determination to stay on the path and keep moving forward.

In my particular case with my high school wrestling career, this abyss was my first ever summer training with the Thai national team, where I got my ass kicked for the most part. To make matters worse, I sprained my ankle on the second day of camp, which was the first time I ever missed wrestling training due to an injury. My ankle continued to heal for two weeks, but I could no longer stand the idea of missing practice so I returned to training somewhat prematurely (for what it’s worth, I knew that I’d have a full month to rest between training camp and school, so I decided to make the most of my training). As for the metamorphosis, I returned to school completely changed in mind, body, and spirit (according to a few friends and mentors). Training camp had truly changed my life, and I would never be the same person after that.

The Ultimate Boon, Crossing Back Into Ordinary Life, and Returning the Boon

Joseph Campbell calls the hero’s biggest reward “the boon”, which is the special knowledge about how to succeed that the hero has earned through his journey. Eventually winning more battles and acquiring more rewards becomes less exciting to heroes than passing along that knowledge to others, or “returning the boon”. Once the boon is returned, the cycle continues and you move into the next phase of your life.

You’ll see this extremely often in combat sports. Marcelo Garcia, one of the greatest of all time in Jiu-Jitsu, runs a gym in New York City to pass on his knowledge. After Dan Gable‘s historic run to Freestyle Wrestling gold in the 1972 Olympics where he didn’t give up a single point (with a torn ligament in his knee), he went on to coach at the University of Iowa, which became one of the most successful and dominant wrestling programs in the United States. American Judo legend Jimmy Pedro became one of the most sought-after judo instructors in the United States, coaching some of the best judokas in American history, including multiple-time Olympian and medalist Travis Stevens along with two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison.

Key Takeaways

At this point, the cycle of the journey repeats. Maybe you undergo the Hero’s Journey as a coach, or your call to adventure pulls you in another direction entirely like business or acting. Regardless of the next steps, here are some key takeaways from the Hero’s Journey.

First, the Hero’s Journey seems to manifest itself in different ways. The beauty of this idea is that it can take the form of small projects or massive undertakings. Regardless of similarity in structure, each journey is ultimately unique and truly your own.

Second, achieving the extraordinary is not a linear process. You will experience lows along with the highs. You’ll end up with enemies along with friends. More importantly, you’ll experience some of the most profound changes in your life, and perhaps the most rewarding. You’ll experience the paradox of seemingly discovering yourself while reinventing yourself at the same time.

Finally, if you’re currently going through the Hero’s Journey, you may feel lonely at times. Maybe you feel as if nobody understands you. If this is the case, remind yourself that you are not alone. Throughout history, people have felt the same thing that you feel right now and have overcome it on the way to achieving incredible goals. Now that you no longer live in the ordinary world, you will feel isolated at times, and that’s okay. You have the choice of turning back, but something tells me that you won’t. That something is the compelling inner voice that you are finally listening to, and it reminds you of three truths:

On the other side of that dark tunnel is light, and there you will find what you are looking for.

Throughout the journey, you become increasingly capable of reaching the light at the end of that dark tunnel.

The ultimate boon waiting for you at the end of the tunnel is worth cherishing and more importantly, worth sharing.

To achieve extraordinary goals, you must surpass extraordinary obstacles.